Tungsten heavy alloy sheet is currently produced by powder consolidation using cold isostatic pressure followed by a series of alternate hot rolling and annealing steps. The sheet must be annealed after about each 30% reduction in thickness.
It would be desirable to make a sheet preform substantially close in thickness to the final thickness of the rolled sheet. This would reduce the time, energy, and labor required for hot rolling and annealing.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,735,757 relates to a process for forming iron metal powder from iron salts by oxidizing a solution of the iron salts to produce a hydrate sludge of the iron, followed by reducing the iron to the metal powder.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,663,667 discloses a process for producing multimetal alloy powders wherein an aqueous solution of at least two thermally reducible metallic compounds and water is formed, the solution is atomized into droplets having a droplet size below about 150 microns in a chamber that contains a heated gas whereby discrete solid particles are formed and the particles are thereafter heated in a reducing atmosphere and at temperatures from those sufficient to reduce the metallic compounds to temperatures below the melting point of any of the metals in the alloy.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,224 relates to a process for producing fine cobalt metal powder by digesting cobalt bearing scrap in hydrochloric acid to produce an aqueous cobalt acid chloride solution containing copper and silver ions which are removed by cementation with iron to result in a cobalt chloride solution which is processed to fine cobalt metal powder.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,663,667, and 4,348,224 are assigned to the same assignee as the present invention.